Things to do in US Southwest this autumn
Autumn is the onset of outdoor season in the US Southwest, when birds return to winter in the mild temperatures, skies clear of the summer monsoons and colour tours may entail spotting hundreds of vibrant hot-air balloons. The following are seasonal activities in Arizona and New Mexico.
SPY A BALLOON
A balloon pilot for more than 40 years, Troy Bradley — the first balloonist to fly from the United States to Africa — lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which he calls “the balloon capital of the world” for its wide-open spaces and favourable weather conditions that allow launches most days. Now, after a pandemicyear hiatus, the community celebrated the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta over nine days of morning launches, races and rides involving more than 500 balloons (Oct 2-10).
“A lot of people come with apprehension, like it’s an amusement-park ride, but it’s not, it’s very gentle,” Bradley said. Balloon fans can watch the spectacle for free all around the area, but a grounds ticket from US$15 (500 baht) allows festivalgoers to get close to the action, talk to the pilots and collect trading cards of the balloons they hand out.
STAY ON A FARM
Indulge your romance with harvest season and book a farm stay. Glamping meets agritourism at the Cozy Peach, a vintage trailer resort at Schnepf Farms in Queen Creek, Arizona, outside of Mesa, reopening for the season on Oct 1 (from $155 a night). There are nine renovated campers that date from 1948 to 1972, each with an outdoor fire ring, access to outdoor grills and loaner bicycles for guests to pedal around the 300acre peach farm, reach U-pick vegetable plots or hit the farm bakery for cinnamon rolls, artisan breads and cookies. Guests get discounted tickets to farm events, including the annual Pumpkin and Chili Party, Oct 1-31, featuring carnival rides, corn mazes, pig races and more (regular admission $23.95).
STARGAZE
Arizona’s clear skies make the state a destination for everyone from amateur stargazers to research academics, and autumn is the perfect time to train your eye on the skies. The dry climate in Arizona “makes the atmosphere more transparent and easier to see out of”, said Alan L. Strauss, the director of the University of Arizona’s Mount Lemmon SkyCenter, an observatory north of Tucson. The centre hosts five-hour stargazing sessions for visitors that start before dark, with sunset viewing from the 2,791m perch, and include dinner, an astronomy lecture and a guided night sky tour of neighbouring planets and more distant galaxies (adults $85). Highlights of autumn stargazing include spotting Jupiter and Saturn in the early evening sky and catching the Leonid meteor shower, taking place Nov 16-17. “October and November are generally very dry when they put on a show,” Strauss added.
HUNT ANCIENT ROCKS
The Southwest is a geologist’s playground and fall marks the resumption of field season. “The heat is generally down and the light is so beautiful in October and all through February,”
said Christa Sadler, an earth science educator and guide who is leading a pair of daylong hikes, Oct 16 and 17 ($65), in Petrified Forest National Park in northeastern Arizona on behalf of the affiliate nonprofit Petrified Forest Field Institute. The park protects a variety of landscapes, including ancient logs that have been turned to stone over millions of years. “People love petrified wood because it’s just so improbable and unexpected,” Sadler said. One of her hikes focuses on a wilderness section of the park called Devil’s Playground, which includes “places that have so many petrified wood chips that we joke that it’s a prehistoric sawmill”. Visitors are forbidden from taking any petrified wood from the park, but the US Bureau of Land Management allows casual collecting in specified areas in the state.
GO BIRDING
Fall migration in the Southwest isn’t just pass-through season. It’s the time of year when tens of thousands of sandhill cranes return. “They’re a sign of fall and a welcome home to their wintering grounds,” said Jon Hayes, the executive director of Audubon Southwest, which covers Arizona and New Mexico. The birds famously winter in the Middle Rio Grande area; Hayes recommends the Bernardo Waterfowl Area near Bosque, New Mexico, about 80km south of Albuquerque, for intimate viewing. Catch sometimes hundreds of hawks migrating over Yaki Point on the south rim of the Grand Canyon, or numerous varieties of hummingbirds among the more than 200 species of birds recorded at the Paton Center for Hummingbirds in Patagonia, Arizona, about 96km south of Tucson. If you’re looking for birds in the Southwest in general, look for water. “Rivers support up to half the bird life in these two states, though they make up only 1-2% of the landscape,” Hayes added. © 2021 THE NEW YORK TIMES